Study Difficulty

Abstract

Difficulty in concentration is a common functional symptom, and students suffering from a variety of psychiatric conditions are liable to come to the Health Service with study difficulty as their presenting complaint. It then becomes necessary to determine whether this symptom is indeed secondary to some other problem of a situational, developmental, or psychiatric nature, or whether any associated emotional distress is secondary to study difficulties deriving from poor study habits. In this paper a pragmatic distinction has been made between Primary Study Difficulty and Secondary Study Difficulty, and between various subcategories of the latter. Useful as such a classification may be it remains, like most classifications, somewhat arbitrary and artificial. In any given case it is usually possible to relate a student's presenting complaints to a variety of factors, and to discern a subtle intertwining of cognitive and emotional determinants. The diagnostic and remedial needs of students with such problems are therefore best served by a clinic which involves psychiatrists and psychologists working in close collaboration.